Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia
March, Barbara
Actor, author and visual artist, born in Ajax, Ontario in 1953. Barbara March attended the University of Windsor and began as a journeyman at the Stratford Festival immediately after graduating. She grew into an accomplished stage performer and soon became a star of the Festival as well as the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis and in theatres in Los Angeles and New York. She received critical acclaim as Isabella in Measure for Measure, Desdemona in Othello, Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream, the title heroine in The Duchess of Malfi, Ruth in Harold Pinter's The Homecoming and, on many occasions, Lady Macbeth. She covered Glenda Jackson in the role on Broadway with an understanding that she would play the last two weeks of the run with Christopher Plummer because Glenda Jackson had a tax problem if she stayed. But when it leaked out from the rehearsal room how brilliant Barbara was going to be, the “tax problem” magically evaporated.
March is probably best known for her portrayal of the Star Trek character Lursa of the House of Duras. She appeared as Lursa in Star Trek: The Next Generation ("Redemption" and "Firstborn"), Star Trek: Deep Space Nine ("Past Prologue") and Star Trek Generations.
Other film and television credits include Total Security, LA Law, The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw, Blood Ties, Night Heat, and three films for Jack Darcus that co-starred her husband, Alan Scarfe: The Portrait, Kingsgate, and Deserters, for which she earned a Genie Award Nomination for Best Actress.
March was also a playwright and screenwriter. Her play The Razing of Charlotte Bronte is also available in Italian as Le riflessioni di Charlotte Bronte and her novella, The Copper People is also available as a screenplay.
She married Alan Scarfe in 1979 and they had a son named Jonathan (also an actor), and a daughter named Antonia (Tosia), born in 1985, who is a musician, composer and songwriter. With her husband, Austin Kamin, they form the group The Storm Alexis. Barbara March died from cancer on August 11th, 2019, at the age of 65.
Profile by Alan Scarfe
Last updated 2023-08-31
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